Flying used to be the default. For more and more people booking time off in 2026, it isn’t. Long airport queues, baggage rules, flight delays, and the cost of all of it have nudged a real shift in how people spend their week off, and where.
A growing number are choosing touring holidays: motorhome and campervan trips, mostly in the UK, often heading north. Recent research presented at the Scottish Motorhome, Caravan & Holiday Home Show puts numbers to a shift we’ve been watching across Atlas Motorhomes bookings for a few seasons.
More than half now prefer touring holidays
A nationwide survey of UK adults found that more than half now prefer touring-style holidays (motorhome, campervan, or caravan) to flying abroad.
It isn’t really a story of giving something up; it’s people swapping a familiar set of trade-offs for a different one.
What touring holidays let you do:
- Set your own pace. No flight to catch.
- Skip the airport. No baggage limit, no rebooking app.
- String several places into one trip. No unpacking again.
- Carry everything you need in the vehicle, including the dog.
The trip becomes part of the holiday rather than the bit that gets in the way.
Flexibility that doesn’t punish you for changing your mind
The strongest reason people give for choosing a motorhome is flexibility. You can shift the plan when the weather shifts. You can stay another night somewhere that turned out to be better than the next stop.
That changes how a holiday actually feels. The morning you decide, over a second cup of coffee, that today is for not driving anywhere and yesterday’s plan can wait, is the morning the trip starts paying you back.
You wake up somewhere different most mornings: a sea loch, a forest park, a beach car park, a Highland glen. Or you don’t. Both are fine.
Scotland is one of the natural fits
Scotland is the most-booked destination from the depot, and it’s easy to see why. The west coast, the Highlands and Islands, the network of Caravan & Motorhome Club sites and Certificated Locations, the long summer light: all of it suits travel by motorhome better than by anything else.
You see places no public-transport itinerary reaches. You spend the night at Loch Maree if Loch Maree is where the day finished. The kitchen, the bed, and the heating come with you.
It isn’t only Scotland, mind. Atlas customers regularly head to the Lake District, and trips to motorsport at Silverstone or to summer festivals are part of a real season’s bookings.
Pet-friendly without the small print
Plenty of touring holidays sell themselves as dog-friendly. Atlas’s policy, for what it’s worth: every vehicle in the fleet takes pets, the cleaning fee is a single small charge per hire (not per night, not per day), and there’s no surprise bill at the end. Bring your own bowls, beds, and blankets; we don’t supply pet kit, but the rest of the vehicle is set up for the trip.
One thing worth knowing if you’re heading northwest: Achmelvich Bay’s beach has a seasonal dog ban running 1 May to 30 September (Highland Council PSPO, with fines up to £1,000). Plenty of nearby beaches don’t carry the ban; we’ll point you at one. For a full breakdown, see our pet-friendly hire page.
What you actually get for the money
Touring holidays do well on cost too, particularly for longer trips. The vehicle is the accommodation, the transport, and the kitchen at the same time, which removes most of the daily expenses a city break collects.
Modern motorhomes are built for comfortable travel away from sites for a night or two. Our fleet is no exception:
- Onboard bathroom and shower.
- Heating and hot water.
- A proper kitchen. Kettle, hob, fridge, the rest of the kit.
- Room to store everything you brought.
There’s no chasing supplements at check-in, either: insurance for the first driver, full UK roadside cover, both Club memberships, and a real human at the depot are all in the price you book at.
The Scottish Motorhome, Caravan & Holiday Home Show
The shift has its own annual snapshot. Held in Glasgow, the show brings the vehicles, the accessories, and the operators under one roof, and it’s where a lot of first-time tourers move from “interested” to “planning a trip”. Worth a Saturday if you’re nearby.
Is a touring holiday for you?
If you’d rather change the plan than stick to a flight booking, and you’d rather have a different view from the side window most mornings than the same hotel room, a motorhome trip will likely sit well. The vehicle is the means; the trip is the point.